Fox News: Authors have no expectation of privacy

Started by Callie Del Noire, September 22, 2012, 08:35:56 AM

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Callie Del Noire

The new book on the Bin Laden raid is coming out and Fox News is again doing the stupid thing. Mark Owen, the pen name of the author of he book, has been identified by Fox News on air as being a SEAL by the name of Matt Bissonnette.  Fox's response was that no author has an expectation of privacy after being published.

Way to go Fox, hope you enjoy your ratings if he or his family are killed.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fox-news-purports-to-identify-author-of-book-on-bin-laden-raid/
http://www.airforcetimes.com/mobile/news/2012/08/ap-cbs-hides-identity-seal-who-wrote-osama-bin-laden-raid-book-083012

mia h

It's just Fox sticking to there channels tag line

"Fox News : Fairly Unbalanced"
If found acting like an idiot, apply Gibbs-slap to reboot system.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: mia h on September 22, 2012, 09:32:32 AM
It's just Fox sticking to there channels tag line

"Fox News : Fairly Unbalanced"

And selective on which authors to apply this too.. Gov. Romney still has his right to privacy (tax returns) even though he is an author too.. but a lowly Navy SEAL isn't the same things as an elected official of course.

mia h

Maybe MSNBC or the Daily Show should send a camera crew out to follow one of the Fox News anchors around 24/7, after all they are in the public eye so have no right to privacy.
If found acting like an idiot, apply Gibbs-slap to reboot system.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: mia h on September 22, 2012, 09:49:10 AM
Maybe MSNBC or the Daily Show should send a camera crew out to follow one of the Fox News anchors around 24/7, after all they are in the public eye so have no right to privacy.

In the Anchor's defense.. it was a Fox VP that said that..not the anchors..

Trieste

Yeah, they released the name a while ago, when the book first came out. Apparently other news sources HAD the name and were asked by gov't officials to please pretty please not publish it. Fox supposedly didn't even ask. I thought it was a pretty scummy thing to do.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Trieste on September 23, 2012, 10:02:35 AM
Yeah, they released the name a while ago, when the book first came out. Apparently other news sources HAD the name and were asked by gov't officials to please pretty please not publish it. Fox supposedly didn't even ask. I thought it was a pretty scummy thing to do.


Maybe the SEAL is democrat.

mia h

If found acting like an idiot, apply Gibbs-slap to reboot system.

Callie Del Noire

I find this disturbing because the journalistic profession shouldn't decide WHO has the right to privacy and who doesn't. If some VP or editor decides that his sources all rate a varying level of privacy and protection..who will step forward to reveal problems that they know about? I mean..we're talking about the foundation of the freedom of press here. Protecting our sources is a very pivotal right..and anything that can be spun to justifying NOT doing that.. well that can make for a LOT of problems later on.

Elias

Right, and wheres your cries for the Pakistani man who has now been imprisoned by the Pakistan government for treason due to Obamas lack of forethought or care for being the whistle blower on Bin Laden? Or Obama providing endless information on Seal team 7 to a movie director?

Did you guys even read this article? The man is releasing a book which UPSETS fellow Navy Seals by revealing information that he shouldn't be.

The tell-all book also has apparently upset a large population of former and current SEAL members who worry about releasing information that could compromise future missions. One Navy SEAL told Fox News, "How do we tell our guys to stay quiet when this guy won't?" Other SEALs are expressing anger, with some going so far as to call him a "traitor."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/23/author-bin-laden-raid-insider-account-idd-could-face-legal-trouble/#ixzz27ns0vxBz

Both the Pentagon and CIA said Wednesday that the book was not in any way vetted by either department to prevent unwanted classified information from being released.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/23/author-bin-laden-raid-insider-account-idd-could-face-legal-trouble/#ixzz27nsIi6WT


These 2 statements tell me Fox News isn't to blame, but it was moving through the political pipelines his safety is secondary if he placed other Navy Seals at risk.



Callie Del Noire

My take? Speaking as a Navy Vet who has known SEALs? And worked with those wonderfully crazy guys tangetically (usually preparing a perfectly good plane for them to jump out of).

The guy did the wrong thing writing the book.

Does that mean I think he and other writers automicatically give up their right to privacy? No. Sorry. Releasing his name only opened up the ability of enemy forces to identify his family and those of his team mates. Sorry.. two wrongs don't make Fox right..

I think he was a tool taking advantage of the moment to get some 'Marcinko' cred. Do I think the guys at McPee's in North Island are going to be happy to see him.. maybe not. Do I think that buy identifying him you widen the ability of the Taliban and others to identify the REST of his team and THEIR families?

Absolutely.

I didn't like it when Julian Assange released all those messages claiming that 'information has a right to be free to everyone'. Why? Because I know somewhere in ALL that traffic, names were mentioned. And I know that people got shot because they, or a relative, helped the US forces in areas that we don't control.

I didn't like it when some tool in the White House revealed the role of Valerie Plame as a NOC. Odds are there are a LOT of places in the world her and her husband would be shot out of hand if they ever went back and I know that 10 minutes after she was outed and the story was faxed from the embassies in DC to their home countries.. lists of people she had talked to in those countries were compiled. And in some of those cases.. people who backed US had their trust in the US betrayed and paid for it. Probably after a long painful talk with experts who did a hell of a lot more than waterboard them.

This wasn't about IF the author SHOULD have put out the book, the original post was about how FOX NEWS (or a VP of Fox News) decides who is (and isn't) entitled to protection under the traditions of journalism.

I don't have to like the fact that this man took advantage of a once in a lifetime event to make some cash, this is about assessing the consequences to himself and others in revealing his identity to the world at large.

Stattick

Quote from: Elias on September 28, 2012, 04:48:09 PM
Right, and wheres your cries for the Pakistani man who has now been imprisoned by the Pakistan government for treason due to Obamas lack of forethought or care for being the whistle blower on Bin Laden? Or Obama providing endless information on Seal team 7 to a movie director?

Did you guys even read this article? The man is releasing a book which UPSETS fellow Navy Seals by revealing information that he shouldn't be.

The tell-all book also has apparently upset a large population of former and current SEAL members who worry about releasing information that could compromise future missions. One Navy SEAL told Fox News, "How do we tell our guys to stay quiet when this guy won't?" Other SEALs are expressing anger, with some going so far as to call him a "traitor."

I cannot find corroboration on any of this on a news source. Fox News is known to lie. Therefore, I cannot trust that secrets were revealed that shouldn't have been, or that other SEALS are upset by this book. Fox might be telling the truth in this, but since they're not a trustworthy source, I will not believe it unless corroborated.
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vtboy

#12
Quote from: Callie Del Noire on September 28, 2012, 05:06:53 PM

This wasn't about IF the author SHOULD have put out the book, the original post was about how FOX NEWS (or a VP of Fox News) decides who is (and isn't) entitled to protection under the traditions of journalism.

I don't have to like the fact that this man took advantage of a once in a lifetime event to make some cash, this is about assessing the consequences to himself and others in revealing his identity to the world at large.

What is most disturbing about publication of the author's identity is its utter insignificance. No doubt there was public benefit in the book's eyewitness account of the mission, and in media coverage of the tensions arising from its publication between security and the public's right to know. If there is any value to be gleaned from disclosure of the real name of the previously anonymous author, however, it eludes me. In fact, the only thing newsworthy about the name was FOX's decision to reveal it, and this, perhaps, is the story FOX was really after. In this respect, FOX acted much like an undertaker who commits murder in an effort to drum up business. 

Even the more ethical journalists must wonder at the value of their own scruple, when the stories they decline are picked up by colleagues with less conscience. Confidentiality and privacy have long since become casualties to today's no-holds barred, exploitative media environment, broadened, flattened and "democratized" by the internet. Even royal vacationing tits bounce and bobble their way from scandal sheet to website and back again. There may still be journalists with sufficient professional integrity to weigh the potentials for harm and public benefit before deciding to disclose some sensitive piece of information, but their numbers are dwindling under the relentless and escalating pressures of competition and politicization among the media.

Stattick

I don't think that it's fair to tar all journalists for the actions of Rupurt Murdock's employees. I honestly cannot recall in any detail any scandals involving journalists that weren't working for Murdock that have happened in the last, fifteen or twenty years. I don't know of any other yellow journalism that's taking place in major Western news sources other than those that are coming out of Murdock's media empire. I know that the "both sides are doing -x-" is a very popular dialogue today, but sometimes, it's just not true. Sometimes, it really is just one side that's doing something rotten.
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Trieste

Does Fars News work for Murdoch?

A CNN anchor can be just as ignorant as a Fox anchor. CNN might be owned by Murdoch, though, I'm not sure.

Then there is Time magazine's plagiarist.

It's important to mistrust news taken from only one source. It is always important to get several viewpoints. Demonizing one news agency and no others conveys a false sense of security and trust that should never, never be conferred to the media. Ever.

Stattick

Quote from: Trieste on September 30, 2012, 01:30:27 PM
Does Fars News work for Murdoch?

A CNN anchor can be just as ignorant as a Fox anchor. CNN might be owned by Murdoch, though, I'm not sure.

Then there is Time magazine's plagiarist.

It's important to mistrust news taken from only one source. It is always important to get several viewpoints. Demonizing one news agency and no others conveys a false sense of security and trust that should never, never be conferred to the media. Ever.

I'm not sure that I'm reading you correctly. If you're saying that we shouldn't demonize Fox News and Murdock's right wing spin machine, than I have to disagree. I think that Wikipedia sums things up nicely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies
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Trieste


Stattick

Quote from: Trieste on September 30, 2012, 09:47:37 PM
My point was that it is not one-sided.

I just summed up my argument against Fox News in another thread. LINK
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Trieste

I think we both agree that Fox has scandals/is scandalous. That is a given. However, the other stations are not immune, they are not above the spin, and should be approached also with care and caution.

Stattick

Quote from: Trieste on September 30, 2012, 10:09:55 PM
I think we both agree that Fox has scandals/is scandalous. That is a given. However, the other stations are not immune, they are not above the spin, and should be approached also with care and caution.

I agree. I think that news media should always be read critically, to look for spin, slant, and logic (or the lack of it). I would never suggest that any news network is infallible.

Sadly, Fox News has such a bad history that nothing they say can be trusted unless it's been corroborated to a source that they don't control, a source that isn't right wing spin (such as the fake science the GOP funded think tanks invent), or a source that cites Fox as a purveyor of information. Fox is yellow journalism through and through, and can't be trusted at all. If Fox told me it was snowing, I'd check another station or look outside before believing it, their reporting is so often fundamentally wrong.

The other major news media outlets in this country don't have these sorts of allegations and scandals. They aren't always correct, sometimes they have a slant, and sometimes a anchor disgraces himself/herself. But I haven't seen a single major scandal involving a news media outlet (an entire broadcast network, newspaper, etc) that isn't owned by Rupert Murdock (the guy that owns Fox) in a long, long time. The problems that other media outlets have are occasional and usually involve a few people. The problems that Murdock's companies (such as the scandal in the UK involving hacking voicemail accounts) have are pervasive and often percolate through entire organizations.
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